Page composed using
Seamonkey composer1
home
site map
January 2020 February 2020

previous day
next day

Tuesday 3rd March 2020
09:07 GMT
 
  Yesterday started cold and wet, but the rain was over before sunset, and for the next few hours it was heavily overcast, but the clouds soon thinned out, and broke up. That gave some very pleasant sunny intervals. They started earlier than forecast - maybe even before midday. The rest of the daylight hours were bright, and sometimes sunny. The afternoon temperature was around 9° C. With a fairly light breeze, it almost felt warm with the sun on my back.
more sunny spells
  Today seems to be one of those days where the weather forecast keeps changing to try and keep track of reality. The day started with quite a clear sky, and a frost. There are some clouds about that occasionally drift across the sun, but so far this morning it has been generally sunny. The latest revision to the forecast says the sunshine will end with some showers at 11am. By midday, and for the rest of the day it will be, or may be, dry, but overcast. The afternoon temperature will only be 9° C, but with no sunshine, it will feel rather chilly. With today's weather being constantly revised it is hard to believe that the forecast for tomorrow could be anywhere near correct. The day will start with a frost, and then the temperature will probably climb to a maximum of just 7° C. That much is probably correct. The much more variable bit says that the whole day will be overcast, and that it will rain from about 1pm until the end of the day.
this didn't match reality
 
On the left is an excerpt from a later revision of the weather forecast for yesterday. The revision had been made at approx 4pm, and as it shows, there was a prediction for hail at 6pm. It didn't happen. As far as I am aware it stayed dry, and at 6pm the sky was still fairly clear after the earlier sunshine. If the sun had not set 15 minutes earlier, it would still have been sunny at 6pm. Since the BBC decided to use a cheap American company for their weather forecasts they seem to be increasingly unreliable.

  Before embarking on my official exercise for the day, which is really just a cover for going to meet Angela in the pub at lunchtime (or usually is, but not always), I went to Aldi to buy some stuff, and I bought quite a lot of stuff.

  I don't think I really had a shopping list planned in my head, and mostly made things up as  went along. I bought some meat, some vegetables, and some booze. I also stocked up on some sachets of Heinz flavoured beans, and took a chance on a couple of sachets of Patak's curry sauces. One of the latter would have an interesting life when I used it to flavour some skinless/boneless chicken thighs that I intended to have for lunch.

not perfect, but
                          nice
  It wasn't perfect when I went out for my walk yesterday, but it wasn't bad. The clouds were moving quite fast, and sometimes the sky was almost clear, and sometimes the sun would dim when a cloud passed in front of it. When I took the picture above, the sun was being diffused by some thin cloud, and made the picture look a bit flat. A few minutes later, as I walked in the direction I was facing when I took the photo, the sun came out again at full strength, and my back began to feel very warm in my black, leather-like jacket.
a 2 mile walk
  I tried a new route to the pub yesterday. I first walked all the way to the Ladywell Road end of the park, and then I swung around by the entrance, and walked down the other side of the pub (the right hand side in this picture). There are 4 possible exits on this side. The first crosses the river, and comes out by the back of St Mary's church, and almost next to the pub. I sometimes use that exit, but not this time.

  The next exit is by the weir that is often interesting to watch. Sometimes watching the water roar over the rocks when the river is high. Sometimes to watch the ducks on the calm of the upstream side of the weir, and once to watch a family of rats explore their local environment - on a day when I didn't have a decent camera with me. The exit here leads into the hospital grounds.

  The next exit comes out onto Albacore Crescent right next to the entrance of the hospital staff car park (or one of them). This is now of some importance because I can (naughtily) cut through the staff car park to pass in front of Angela's office, and wave to her. I did this for the first time yesterday, and got a cheerful wave back, plus a mouthed "see you soon" from Angela.

  The final exit is at the far end of the athletic track, or "Ladywell Arena" as it is now grandly called. It exits on to what is known as the Rushey Green triangle - a network of roads bounded on two sides by the South Circular road, and the main road between Catford and Lewisham. The third side is bordered by the railway, the park, and the hospital, and strictly speaking it is really more a sort of rectangular shape with lumps, but triangle sounds nice.
tree weaving through
                          steel mesh fence
  If trees ever decide to take over the world we are doomed !  This tree refuses to say no to a steel mesh fence. It has weaved a path through it. Further up the same fence there is a thicker branch that is growing around, and seemingly absorbing some of the mesh within itself.
moorhen
  I resisted the temptation to take even more pictures of ducks yesterday, but having had a refresher on water bird names, I decided to take a picture of what I can now say with some confidence is a Moorhen. If it's beak was white, and it had white legs it would be a coot. I do see Coots on the river from time to time, but not yesterday, and maybe not at this time of year.

  After waving to Angela in her office, I arrived at the pub just after 1pm, and knowing that Angela would be along soon, I bought her a drink. After 5 or 6 minutes she arrived, and we had a nice lunchtime together. We swapped tales of our weekends, and while Angela's started better than mine, it felt like mine had ended better. Angela had taken Friday off work, and so her weekend started on Thursday night. That night she spent with her daughter drinking the vodka I had given Angela when she said she was not feeling very happy. It was evidently good vodka, and both Angela and her daughter, Miranda, enjoyed it. Evidently Miranda enjoyed it enough to send me a message on Thursday night to thank me (I'm sure I have already mentioned this).

  Angela was in a very relaxed mood in the pub. As usual I probably delude myself, but it feels like we have moved even closer to each other. It is a bit weird, but it seems that Angela enjoyed being waved to in her office as much as I enjoyed doing it. Angela did not comment on her work situation. She actually prefers it when there is lots to do because it makes the day go faster. I am not sure if yesterday was a slack day for her, but she announced that if it were possible she could stay in the pub all afternoon.

  That is not a wholly unusual comment, but what was unusual is that she definitely hung out to the very last seconds before going back to work, and that involved an unusual third drink - but just a small one. I opted for a single Jameson's whiskey, and it came in a very pretty glass that was intended for Glen Livet whisky. Angela took a liking to the glass, and it seemed to fall into her handbag !

  Yesterday I walked her right back to her office door (or actually the door into her office block). I suggested I give her a quick hug while we were shielded from the office windows by a big shrub. She said she didn't care who was looking, and gave me a very warm hug. Later on, a little while after I got home, I sent her a message saying that I didn't know how or when, but we must meet in a pub sometime when she didn't have to rush back to work, and could spend a more relaxed time together. Her reply was just a simple "Definitely ! xx". When that day will come, and even if it will come, is anyone's guess.
burnt lunch
  I was brought down to earth when I got home. Before going out I decided to test one of the sachets of curry sauce I had bought from Aldi in the morning. I poured it over three skinless/boneless chicken thighs, and put them in my mini oven for about 30 minutes to half cook them. I then went back to turn them over, and spoon some of the sauce over the chicken before giving it another 20 minutes cooking. One thing I noticed, but didn't realise it was very significant, was that the mechanical time was not ticking when I went to turn the chicken over.

  I had left the chicken cooking when I went out for my walk (and pub visit) the idea was that it would finish cooking, and I would just have to heat it up for 5 minutes when I got home. What I found when I got in was that the time had stuck, and the chicken and sauce had been cooking, and then cremating for almost 90 minutes. The picture above shows the charred mess I found. Strangely enough it was still edible, although instead of being a nice moist lunch it was dry and crispy. It had also shrunk so much that I had some other stuff to eat to make up for the void.

  I was expecting a parcel delivery yesterday, and had been given a time slot of (roughly) between 3 and 4pm (which made it safe to go out at lunchtime). I was a bit surprised when there was a knock at the door not long after I had got home. I assumed the courier was early because the item, a spare battery for my Sony Mini Disc player, was what I was expecting. Just after 3pm there was a knock at the door, and this time it was the courier I was expecting with the battery I was expecting. I had ordered two batteries, and the first to arrive was not expected to arrive for a few days yet.

  I now have two working batteries for my Sony and Kenwood portable Mini Disc player/recorders. I had to make up a new charger for the Sony machine because the charger I thought I was going to use had too low an output voltage, but both batteries for the Sony machine are now fully charged. I think I will have to find another charger for the Kenwood machine because the output voltage of the charger I was going to use seems too low to 100% charge the new batteries (but it does charge them very slowly). I may take the Sony machine out with a stereo machine today to see what sounds I can capture.

  Dinner was a more carefully controlled version of lunch. I didn't have any skinless/boneless chicken thighs, but I did have them with the skin on, and the bone in. I used the other sachet of curry sauce, and put them in the mini oven. The time definitely gets stuck around the 20 minute mark, but I kept a close eye on the cooking, and they didn't burn this time. They were sort of nice, but I am unsure if they were so nice that I will actually seek out more sachets of those sauces. I'll probably pick up a few spares for future use if they are easily spotted in Aldi.

  My dinner was essentially just the chicken with (sort of) baked on sauce. I followed it with two Braeburn apples with 4 or 5 sugar free digestive biscuits. Later in the evening I would snack on some mixed nuts. The system must have worked a bit because my blood glucose has finally dropped to a more satisfactory level at last - although I wasn't specifically aiming for that. My food consumption was really on autopilot yesterday, but my brain often seems to know what it is doing.

  Yesterday I got my energy bills. It seems that I have built up a very big credit on my gas bill because my gas usage is very low - very, very low compared to a house with gas central heating. My electricity usage is not low, and I have quite a big bill to pay. I have to keep reminding myself that my monthly standing order will actually take care of quite a bit of the amount demanded, and so my extra outlay will not be too bank breaking !

  That electricity bill did make me think that I ought to reduce my consumption. It will go down naturally as the days continue to warm up, but last night for the first time since last October (maybe a bit later) I left all the heating off last night.At first my bedroom didn't feel too cool, but by the time I went to bed I was glad to get under the duvet. I think it was something like 4am when I got up for a pee that my resolve broke, and I put the heater on low so I wouldn't be freezing when I got up. That was probably a very wise move considering the morning started with a frost.

  It is still bright outside, but sadly we seem to have lost the sunshine. Maybe the worst threats of the forecast will come true...or maybe not. The latest revision to the forecast says there should be sunny spells until midday when it will rain. it would seem that it will only rain for the first half of my walk today, and that it will be dry by the time I get to the pub. By 3pm the sun may come out again, and there could be sunny spells until sunset. I think I'll take this latest revision of the forecast with a pinch of salt.